5 Comments

Napster borrowing from iTMS?

September 4, 2005 by in Stupid,Tech with 5 Comments

Apparently we can get free music from Napster this weekend. Just download the software and register for a account. There is no credit card requirement at this time either. Login using Napster Lite to bypass the CC field. The Napster Lite deal is only going on through September 5th so try it before it expires.

The following screenshot is a little interesting:


Click for a larger preview.

Sygate caught Napster trying to connect to Apple’s iTunes Music Store servers at a1.phobos.apple.com. Now why would a competing music paid downloading service need to connect to the iTMS? Are the “borrowing” cover art? Top playlists?

(EDIT: It was fun while it lasted, I used some DNS tools and can confirm that the story is fake.)

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  • Dan

    I can confirm that this is INDEED fake:

    The IP, 205.188.221.6, does not belong to a1.phobos.apple.com it belongs to…. AOL…

    Location: United States [City: Sterling, Virginia]

    NOTE: More information appears to be available at AOL-NOC-ARIN.

    Using 13 day old cached answer (or, you can get fresh results).
    Hiding E-mail address (you can get results with the E-mail address).

    OrgName: America Online, Inc
    OrgID: AMERIC-59
    Address: 22080 Pacific Blvd
    City: Sterling
    StateProv: VA
    PostalCode: 20166
    Country: US

    NetRange: 205.188.0.0 – 205.188.255.255
    CIDR: 205.188.0.0/16
    NetName: AOL-DTC
    NetHandle: NET-205-188-0-0-1
    Parent: NET-205-0-0-0-0
    NetType: Direct Assignment
    NameServer: DNS-01.NS.AOL.COM
    NameServer: DNS-02.NS.AOL.COM
    Comment:
    RegDate: 1998-04-18
    Updated: 1998-04-27

    TechHandle: AOL-NOC-ARIN
    TechName: America Online, Inc.
    TechPhone: +1-703-265-4670
    TechEmail: *******@aol.net

    # ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2005-08-01 19:10
    # Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN’s WHOIS database.

  • srussian

    Hey Mr. Uneasy, what gives with nearly none of the images showing up? Is it just me or..?

  • Dan

    Does the header image load, also it is a known firewall issue we have been working on.

  • justin

    So it points to AOL, doesn’t mean the iTMS database or whatever it’s accessing isn’t hosted on machines owned by AOL. All the signs I’m seeing have the IP and the domain name pointing to the akamai.net servers. AOL and Akamai have a partnership. Doing a lookup on a1.phobos.apple.com shows DNS is handled by edgesuite.net which in turn is handled by akamai.net which in turn is handled by aol.com

  • srussian

    Header always shows… I’ve never had compatibility issues with firewalls, I doubt it’s because of that.

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